10-27-25 – 1 Corinthians 5

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Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. Allen J. Huth shares a Bible passage with comments from over 35 years of his personal Bible reading journals and applies the Word of God to our daily lives.

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Today brings us to 1 Corinthians 5. We’ll listen to our guest reader, Dr. Michael Elliott, pastor of Regency Christian Center in Parker, Colorado, and founder of Touching Africa Ministries, as he reads the 13 verses of 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5.

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It is actually reported there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that’s not tolerated even among pagans. For a man has his father’s wife and you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit. As if present, I am already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexual immorality of this world. For the greedy and swindlers or idolaters since then, you would need to go out of the world. But now I’m writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater or reviler, a drunkard or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what I have to do with judging others, is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you.

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My journal entry in 1994 is the only one that really deals with the subjects in this chapter, 1 Corinthians 5. I wrote, the church cannot tolerate open immorality. It will spread like cancer among the body. Quote, clean out the old leaven. Don’t associate with immoral people. Quote, not with an immoral so-called brother. Judge those within the church. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. In 2004, I was reading the Bible chronologically, so I was reading more than one chapter at a time. And on this day, I read 1 Corinthians 5 through 8. I did have a couple of lines referring to this, which I’ll share. I wrote, And then I went on into chapter 6 and I quoted verse 20. For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. And then I finished with saying, be careful how we live so we don’t cause others to stumble. And in 2015, I read 1 Corinthians 4 and 5 on the same day, and my entry was all about chapter 4 with nothing about chapter 5. In the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul really covered the arrogance of the church and some of the divisiveness based on who was following who. Now he lets the Corinthian church know that he is aware of some of their sexual immorality. Paul has some pretty harsh words for the tolerance of sexual immorality in the church. He says in verse 4, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Then and now, Paul is saying we cannot tolerate sexual immorality within the body of Christ. He uses the illustration of leaven in a lump of bread. He says in verse 6, So he’s saying to them and to us, we have to deal with sins like this within the church or it can spread. Paul concludes this chapter by saying, But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is an idolater, reveler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. These sound like harsh words from Paul to the church at Corinth. What would he think of our churches today? Remember, his point earlier in the chapter was to discipline sexual immorality so that the person could be restored. Isn’t that true? As parents, we discipline our children not to punish them eternally, but to restore them to correct behavior. That is the love side of this message in this chapter. Paul is telling the Corinthians, he’s telling us, when you know something is going wrong within the body of Christ, deal with it so that it won’t spread and the person can be restored to faith. Does your church handle obvious sinful behavior in such a way? Do you have a discipline manual or a discipline procedure to handle such things? I personally have never been in church leadership, so I have never handled a disciplined case within a church. But I have been involved in the disciplinary matters of the Gideons International, a ministry. The Gideons International does have a discipline manual, and I have been involved in personal and corporate discipline of our membership. These matters are never easy to deal with, but 1 Corinthians chapter 5 tells us we need to do so. There is certainly a corporate application to this chapter, whether you’re in a church or a ministry, that sexual immorality cannot be tolerated. But there’s also a personal application, isn’t there? If any of the listeners are currently involved in a sexually immoral relationship, stop. Go back to last chapter, chapter 4, verse 16. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. If you are caught up in sexual immorality at the moment, repent. Confess your sin to the Lord, who is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Repentance means turn from the sin. Forgiveness means we’re cleansed in the blood of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, that you give us a way of escape from sinful, immoral behavior. Thank you for being a God who hears our prayers, forgives us, and cleanses us. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. You have been listening to AdBible, audio daily devotions from the Ezra Project. You can learn more about the Ezra Project at EzraProject.net. There you can learn ways to share AdBible with your friends and your family. You can contact us and let us know what you think about AddBible. Just go to EzraProject.net and find the Contact Us page. Send us a note. We’d love to hear from you. And may God bless you as you continue to listen to AddBible. According to a recent Barna research study entitled Bible Reading, A New Year’s Resolution, most Americans are not satisfied with their current level of Scripture reading. A majority express a desire to read the Bible more than they currently do. Born-again and practicing Christians are the most likely to desire more Bible reading in their day-to-day lives. It should not come as a surprise that the majority of Americans wish they read Scripture more than they do, says Roxanne Stone, editor-in-chief of Barna Group. After all, two-thirds of Americans agree that the Bible contains everything you need to know to live a meaningful life. Why wouldn’t you want to read such a book more often? The study continues. However, like other New Year’s resolutions, such as exercising more and eating healthier, Scripture reading is often an aspirational goal. It’s the goal that for most people probably doesn’t feel necessary to survive and so can easily get swamped by the day-to-day demands of a busy life. Scripture reading takes time and focus, two things that feel like scarcities in today’s fast-paced and on-demand culture. Like exercise, like dieting, regular Bible reading does not offer instant payoff. It’s a discipline whose rewards are reaped over the long haul. And the study continues, when people go from feeling they should read the Bible more to needing to read the Bible more, they find the time. Access to the Bible is not the issue in the USA, is it? We all have Bibles. According to another study done a few years ago, 88% of Americans own a Bible. We have 3.5 Bibles in our homes. And this is amazing. 59% of people who have no faith or are atheists even own a Bible, probably just in case. So if you have a smartphone, you have access to the Word of God. My Gideon Bible app has over 2,100 languages. Access to the Bible is not the issue. The issue is changing our beliefs about the Bible to behavior with the Bible. So where are Christians with the Bible today? Christians are well-intentioned when it comes to the Bible. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. We believe, we just don’t behave. Our belief in the Bible and our behavior with the Bible are inconsistent. The middle ground related to the Bible seems to be disappearing. The decrease of Bible-neutral and Bible-friendly people and the increase of Bible antagonists suggests that more people are picking a side. Which side are you on? Are you a Bible antagonist questioning the Bible? Are you Bible-neutral? I just don’t know. Or are you Bible-friendly? I love the Bible. Wherever you are, pick a side. Because of our neglect of God’s Word, we are becoming biblically illiterate. For example, in a private religious elementary school, kids were asked about the Old and New Testaments. Here are some funny things that they had to say. The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat that apple. Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day but a ball of fire by night. What kind of man was Boaz before he married? So, if we think about Bible literacy or illiteracy, we think about it this way. If God decided to come down from his throne in heaven, become an author here on earth, you’d think his book would be on the bestseller list. And the fact is, the Bible is the number one bestselling book of all time. 2.5 to 5 billion, according to research. It’s also the most read book of all time. Praise the Lord, that alone might be evidence that the Bible, not any other so-called writing, is God’s Word. According to a weekly World News report, here are a few other Bible facts. About 50 Bibles are sold every minute. The Bible is the world’s best-selling book. It’s also the world’s most shoplifted book. That’s interesting. And that doesn’t even count all the Gideon Bibles stolen out of those hotels. So I encourage you to enjoy a portion of God’s Word every day. Make it a daily spiritual habit. And so until next time, I’m Alan J. Huth, and this program is sponsored by The Ezra Project, with support from listeners like you. Visit EzraProject.net to keep AdBible, connecting God’s people to God’s Word, on the air. I know you’re going to like it and want to share it with others.